


Look the Other Way

by autumnstar



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-07 10:58:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13433286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnstar/pseuds/autumnstar
Summary: Lucifer’s assurances, if they could be called that, had only made her more suspicious that their suspect’s current state was directly connected to her own assault. There’d been something about the way her partner had smiled at her; about the way he’d fixed his eyes on hers and assured her Vega had been rightfully punished. It wasn’t like when he usually told her their latest suspect deserved to be punished for what they’d done. This time, those words held a promise.[After being attacked by their latest suspect, Chloe's attacker is dumped outside the precinct battered and bruised, and she needs answers. Set some time after 3x10]





	1. He Was the Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coilingearth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coilingearth/gifts), [Aeshna_cyanea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeshna_cyanea/gifts).



_Lucifer. 11th January. Thursday Evening._

It was Chloe who’d suggested they split up, after their suspect ran from his restaurant and gave them the slip. Lucifer should have insisted that they stick together, and he regretted that he hadn’t. The sound of her cry when Vega first hit her haunted him. It was pained and surprised, and it kept playing through Lucifer’s mind, as clear as the first time he’d heard it.

He’d ran towards the sound, and the faint thumping that he’d hoped - almost prayed - wasn’t what he thought it was. When he'd finally found them in that alley, an out of breath Vega spotted him and fled again. He'd had to make a choice then; run after the assailant, or stay with the Detective.

Lucifer chose to stay.

She'd seemed so tiny and pale on the dark, soiled floor. He'd wanted nothing more than to lift Chloe off the ground and cradle her in his lap, but Lucifer knew how fragile human's could be. He didn't want to move her and risk making her injuries worse. All he could do was hold her hand instead, while he waited for backup to arrive. He'd brushed her hair from her face and told her, if she could hear him, that she would be okay. He'd make things right.

Seeing her lying in a hospital bed wasn't any more comforting than the memory of her lying broken on the ground, but at least she was awake. The Detective's skin was still pallid, but now she had large purple bruises to go with it. One stretched across her cheekbone and another peeked out from under the neckline of her gown. Even knowing what had happened to her attacker, Lucifer was filled with a fresh wave of anger when he saw Chloe like that.

"Hey," she said quietly. He could tell it hurt her to smile, but she managed it, for him. Things had been strained between them since he’d kidnapped the Sinnerman. Even though they’d continued to work together, Chloe seldom smiled at him anymore.

"I tried to get you into a nicer room," Lucifer began as he took a seat by her bed. He didn't know what else to say, and he spent a moment playing with his cuffs before he spoke again. "This was the best they could do, apparently, but at least they let your spawn visit." It was long after regular visiting hours, but the small human had been so upset when she'd heard about her mother being hurt. He couldn't have that. Lucifer had insisted with the woman at reception, and then with the Detective's doctor, that the child had to see her.

"Dan told me you did a thing," Chloe nodded slightly, and winced at the sudden movement.

“A few things, actually,” he corrected.

“You didn’t have to,” she said with a faint smile. “I’m just glad you’re here.” Lucifer had no idea how she managed to keep her voice so calm, so untroubled, when she was clearly uncomfortable. He supposed she was using the same amount of willpower as he was using to keep himself from reaching out and holding her hand again. It was his fault she was hurt in the first place. He should have insisted that they stick together.

"Well, I knew you’d get bored if I stayed away, so," Lucifer teased, trying to keep her mood light. “Maze would have come as well, but she’s… well, she’s busy.”

“Hmm,” Chloe hummed thoughtfully. “Do I wanna know?”

“Definitely not,” he said, still smiling. Lucifer was only partly joking, but his jovial mood seemed to settle the Detective. She didn’t need to know why Maze was busy, just like she didn’t need to know what he’d been up to since the attack.

“Apparently Vega turned himself in,” Chloe commented, and didn’t seem satisfied when he only nodded in response. “Did you know?”

“Of course I knew,” Lucifer affirmed. “I was there when the ambulance drove him away.” She wasn’t getting more out of him than that, but he could tell that Chloe suspected something. She watched him for a moment, searching his face, and then she closed her eyes and turned her head away. He supposed she must still be tired.

“I should let you get some more rest.”

“What happened?” Chloe almost interrupted, her eyes open again but not on him.

“I couldn’t tell you, Detective.”

“Dan said he was in shock.”

“I think a lot of people were shocked. He looked a mess.”

“So he’d been attacked?”

“That’s what they’re saying.”

With a slight frown, Chloe looked at him again, and Lucifer thought she might suspect him before she smiled and spoke. Then he was certain she did.

“What do _you_ say?” She pressed. Lucifer shrugged languidly and leaned back in his seat. He acted unaffected, but he knew that Chloe wouldn’t stop until she got a more substantial answer, rather than his evasive ones.

“I say,” Lucifer began, and held the Detective’s gaze, “That he was rightfully punished.”

 

* * *

 

_Chloe. 15th January. Monday Morning._

Chloe knew she wasn’t expected back at work so soon. She didn’t _have_ to be there, and yet she felt like she did. Something was off about how her case with Lucifer was wrapped up. It wasn’t that she’d been assaulted, sometimes things like that happened in her line of work, it was that Vega had been attacked only a few hours later.

Lucifer’s assurances, if they could be called that, had only made her more suspicious that their suspect’s current state was directly connected to her own assault. There’d been something about the way her partner had smiled at her; about the way he’d fixed his eyes on hers and assured her Vega had been rightfully punished. It wasn’t like when he usually told her their latest suspect deserved to be punished for what they’d done. This time, those words held a promise. Their suspect _had_ been punished for what he’d done. Not for the murder of a rival restaurant owner, but for hurting her.

A shiver ran down Chloe’s back, like a rush of icy water, and she tried to distract herself by searching the precinct for a familiar face. Ella waved to her excitedly from the doorway of her lab, and she couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s enthusiastic greeting.

“Hey!” The lab tech grinned as she pulled Chloe into a hug. Ella’s embraces were usually firm and warm, but today it was loose and careful. Chloe appreciate the thought. She was still bruised and aching, but with the way she was feeling she could have really done with one of her friend’s more solid, comforting hugs.

“I didn’t think you were coming in today,” Ella said as she leaned back, concerned.

“I wasn’t,” Chloe confessed. “But there’s just something about the Vega case that’s bothering me.”

“Well, yeah, someone did a real number on that guy,” Ella said like it was a no brainer. She decided then that she couldn’t share her full concerns with her friend. Chloe didn’t want to drag anyone into her suspicions about Lucifer. Thanks to Pierce, no one else in the LAPD knew what Lucifer had done to the Sinnerman, but Chloe did. She knew what he was capable of.

“I just feel like,” she paused, choosing her words carefully. “Like I’m missing something. Did you get Dan’s report?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d want it for another couple days.” Ella walked her into the lab and started flipping through a pile of papers and files by her computer. Chloe stood just inside the doorway, worrying her hands together. She looked out to the other officers walking around, and spotted Lucifer coming down the stairs.

Cursing under her breath and without thinking, Chloe hurriedly shut the lab door and closed the blinds. She hadn’t expected to see him there. She’d assumed, since she wasn’t officially supposed to be back, that her partner would have no reason to go into work, either.

“Are you hiding from Lucifer?” A voice beside her quizzed, and Chloe jumped. A flash of a memory came back to her; a fist swinging towards her face. Maybe she really was back at work too soon.

Turning away from the windows, Chloe tried to pretend she wasn’t having flashbacks of her assault. Ella gave her a wide-eyed look. The kind that asked ‘what’s going on?’ without her having to utter a word.

“No,” Chloe answered quickly. “No, why would I be hiding from Lucifer? I was just,” she lifted her hand towards the blinds and stumbled over her hurried excuse. “I was just surprised to see him.”

“Why?” Ella frowned, holding out the file that Chloe assumed contained Dan’s report. “You don’t know? He’s been in like every day since your...” It was Ella’s turn to struggle to find the right words, like mentioning her assault would remind Chloe of what had happened. As if she could forget. “You know. He even helped Dan with the arrest report.” Ella sounded as surprised by that as Chloe felt.

Taking the file with a nod of thanks, Chloe skipped straight over the report on her assault and found the arrest report. She couldn’t bring herself to read what Dan had written about the attack. Just seeing her name written under ‘victim’ made Chloe feel sick.

“So Lucifer’s been in a lot?” She asked Ella, just for a distraction as she began to read the papers. Nothing unusual immediately jumped out to her. It was just a standard report.

“Yeah. He’s been a big help,” Ella answered, but Chloe was only half-listening. “It’s funny, though.”

“What’s funny?” She asked as she found the details of the arrest. Lucifer had been the one to discover Vega.

“He’s usually first in line to interrogate suspects, right?” Chloe nodded. “Well, when Dan went to the hospital to question the guy, Lucifer stayed here. Said it was better if he didn’t go.”

“Oh,” Chloe said quietly. “Yeah, that’s not like him.” She didn’t think anything else could make her more suspicious of what Lucifer had done. She’d been wrong.

Looking back down to the report, Chloe carried on reading; a sickly feeling beginning to churn in her stomach. She read Dan’s account of how Gerard Vega was found, with a description of his injuries, and how he was muttering something to himself. Dan reported that he couldn’t understand Vega at first, but the man kept repeating the same phrase. She felt her breath catch when Dan finally mentioned what the phrase was.

_Él era el diablo._

She recognised one of the words easily, but without thinking, Chloe turned to Ella and asked,

“What does that say?”

“ _He was the Devil_ ,” the lab tech translated, and misjudged the look of obvious unease that Chloe knew she couldn’t keep from her face. “I know, right? Totally creepy. I would not like to be inside that guy’s head.”

Chloe nodded absently and kept reading. Just underneath the narrative of what had happened, she spotted Dan’s signature. _D. Espinoza._ It was rushed and simple, especially compared to Lucifer’s full name signed beside it in a flourish of red ink.

 _The Devil,_ Chloe thought again, and felt another cold chill trickle down her spine as she looked towards the closed blinds.

Before she could stop herself, she reached out and parted them. Lucifer was still there, talking amiably with Charlotte Richards. The lawyer said something, Chloe couldn’t hear what, but it was hard to miss Lucifer’s purred reply.

“Lovely!” He said with a grin. It wasn’t his usual, carefree smile. Something about it was shark-like and made Chloe let the blinds snap shut so she wouldn’t have to see it.

“Wait… You don’t think he meant Lucifer, do you?” Ella’s tone was enough to tell Chloe that she didn’t agree. Of course she didn’t. Ella didn’t buy into Lucifer’s devil delusions, and Chloe didn’t, either. She really didn’t. It was just too much of a coincidence for her to not think Lucifer was somehow involved.

“No,” she denied. “I just don’t think he’s telling me the full story. I... don’t believe him.”

“Who don’t you believe, Detective?” Clapping the file shut and clutching it to her chest, Chloe span around at the sound of his voice. Lucifer smiled at her, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes as he looked her up and down. _Of course_ he was pleased with her reaction. Chloe tried not to rise to the bait. Maybe he was just pleased to see her back at work, she told herself.

“No one,” she assured him, but Lucifer’s raised eyebrow told her he didn’t buy that. “You,” Chloe admitted, and immediately regretted it when her partner’s smile fell.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Look, I just meant--” She struggled to think of something to say, then remembered the file held tight in her arms. “I can’t believe you helped Dan with this report. I thought paperwork wasn’t your thing?”

“Well, it’s not,” he readily agreed with a fresh smile. “Not usually.”

“Then why did you help?”

“Because it was our case and you were unavailable.”

“So you just wanted to wrap things up,” Chloe said, watching him closely. He was still smiling, with one hand in his pocket and his whole stance the perfect picture of a laid-back club owner. He was almost _too_ casual. “How did you know I’d be in today?”

“Oh, I didn’t,” Lucifer answered. “That was just a happy coincidence. I actually came in to see the Lieutenant.”

“Why?” Chloe couldn’t help asking. “Is this about the--” She stopped herself and glanced across to Ella, who was sorting through papers again and doing her best to look as if she wasn’t listening. “The You-Know-Who?”

“Not this time, no,” her partner said, without elaborating. It reminded her of the other evening in the hospital, the day after her assault, when all of Lucifer’s answers had been empty and evasive. She knew without either of them having to say anything else, that he wouldn’t tell her what was really going on. She’d have to find out the truth for herself.


	2. Torture and Voyeurism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't put a warning on this because I don't think it needs one. The majority of the torture/punishment is skipped, and what I have written isn't graphic or gory.

_Lucifer. 10th January. Wednesday Night._

Murderers always return to the scene of the crime. That was something Lucifer had heard a lot working with the LAPD. While it wasn’t always true, it was certainly the case for Gerard Vega. It made Maze’s job of tracking him easy, after Lucifer had told her what had happened. He hadn’t even needed to ask for her help. As soon as she heard that Chloe was in hospital, and that Trixie was with Daniel, Maze was out the door and tracking the human down.

Not an hour later, Lucifer had received a call from his demon. Her hunt had led her quickly to the restaurant Vega had killed his rival in. It was taped off, still part of the LAPD’s investigation, but that hadn’t deterred the attacker from sneaking back inside.

Lucifer found Maze leaning against the front window when he arrived. She made a show of indifferently twirling her blades as she waited for him, but Lucifer could see the underlying tension in her body. She was like a tightly wound coil ready to spring loose. Both of them were angry about what had happened to Chloe, and both of them intended to enjoy this punishment.

“Ready to have some fun?” Maze grinned, and he smiled back.

“Always,” Lucifer returned, and lifted the police tape for Maze to step inside. “Who doesn’t love a good bit of torture?”

Inside was dark, but enough light shined in from the street for Lucifer to see that the restaurant itself was empty. He exchanged a look with Maze, who nodded and headed towards the kitchen door. Lucifer followed her at a slower pace, taking his time to enjoy the moment as best as he could. He wanted to make Vega pay for what he’d done to the Detective, but thinking about his need to punish, made him think about the way Chloe had looked when he’d last seen her.

“Looks like there’s no one here,” Maze said out loud, a lot louder than necessary, and Lucifer welcomed the distraction.

“Oh, well, that is a shame,” he agreed even louder. “Maybe we should look elsewhere?”

They waited, the two of them silently watching each other as they listened at the kitchen door. Then, unsurprisingly, Lucifer heard the clang of a pot falling and Maze sprang into action. She left him in the kitchen doorway as she dashed into the room, dived over a counter in a flurry of swirling knives, and tackled Vega to the ground.

Chloe’s attacker struggled, of course he did, but it was all futile. He was a muscular man, he could have easily fought off any human assault, but Maze was very definitely not human. Every attempt to push her off failed. Every swing of his fists missed. Finally, with a satisfying crunch, the demon pushed Vega’s bulky arm down onto the tiled floor to stop him.

“Well done, Maze!” Lucifer applauded as he stepped into the kitchen, full of pride. “Would it be too much to ask for an encore?”

“Seriously? I can think of several other things I’d rather do,” Maze shot back, and dug her knee into Vega’s spine as if to prove a point; earning her a pained groan from the human.

“Tease,” Lucifer playfully chided as Vega began to weakly struggle again. “But you’re right,” he sighed. “We’ve got a lot to do.”

Maze jumped back as Lucifer stepped forward and dragged the human to his feet.

“W-what do you want?” Vega stammered, cradling his injured arm. “What’s this about, man?”

“All in good time, Gerard,” Lucifer promised. “Maze and I just want a word.”

Instructing his demon to find something to tie Vega’s hands and ankles, Lucifer began to explore the kitchen. He slipped off his blazer, replaced it with an apron he’d found, and rolled up his sleeves as he spied the huge vat of sauce towards the back of the room. By the time he returned to Maze, she’d knotted Vega’s laces together, and used a strip of cloth to tie his wrists behind his back.

Vega looked up at him, and seeing the man’s look of defiance rekindled all of the anger that Lucifer had been trying to hold back. He remembered his panic when he’d heard Chloe in trouble, his fury when he saw Vega standing over her, and the flood of guilt that filled his chest when he realised he hadn’t been there for her. Again. If he’d been by her side, Chloe would have been safe.

Directing all of that towards Vega, and with a growl of frustration, Lucifer hauled the man towards the large vat. He struggled, but as with Maze, the human was no match against his captor’s supernatural strength.

“Wait--” Vega finally ground out, his voice broken as if he’d been winded or punched in the throat. _He probably has been_ , Lucifer thought as he glanced back at Maze. “What’s this about?”

 _How can he not know?_ Lucifer felt his anger blazing inside himself, but outwardly, he tried to remain as cool and collected as he could. Only Maze would be able to see through it.

“You know,” he said to the demon, ignoring Vega’s question. “I think there’s something poetic about drowning a man in a vat of salsa.”

“How is that poetic?” Maze asked with a smirk as she wheeled over a tray. It wasn’t until she was back in sight that Lucifer spotted all of the knives she’d collected and spread out on the top of it.

“It’s a long story, but basically,” Lucifer lifted the lid off the vat, his hand fisted at the back of Vega’s collar. “Gerry here killed his rival over this sauce. Apparently he just _had_ to get his hands on Martinez’s secret recipe.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Vega protested, squirming in Lucifer’s vice-like grip. “It was an accident. The bastard came at _me_! I never wanted to--!” His head was dunked into the cold vat of sauce before he could finish. The mixture had been sitting for nearly a week since the murder, and had cooled and congealed. After the police had sealed off the area, no one had been allowed in to touch _any_ of the evidence. That included the sauce Vega was currently submerged in.

When Lucifer pulled the man back up, he coughed and sputtered and renewed his struggle to get away. It failed, again. Sauce had splashed everywhere; on Lucifer’s apron, on Maze’s tray of utensils, and on the floor. Vega slipped and Lucifer let him fall.

“Anyway,” he said, and turned his attention back to Maze. “Where should we begin?”

“Hmm. Let’s start with the fingers,” she answered, and Lucifer felt her hand trail along his shoulders as she stepped around him.

“Naturally,” he agreed.

“Maybe some Naipeu Geim.”

“Splendid idea!”

“Or Hands Free?”

“Ooh,” Lucifer purred, “An oldie but a goodie. I like it!”

“I thought you might,” Maze said as she circled Vega and pulled him up onto his knees. Lucifer watched patiently as she dragged the man by the collar of his shirt, and threw him face down onto a nearby counter. He struggled, but it was useless with the sauce stinging his eyes. Vega wouldn’t be able to see where he was going if he did somehow manage to break free of Maze’s grasp.

The demon produced a meat tenderiser from her tray of tools, and Lucifer grinned at her enthusiasm.

“I’ll hold him down,” he offered as Maze untied Vega’s wrists.

“No need. I got this.” She smiled. “You can watch this bit.”

“Torture _and_ voyeurism in one day?” Lucifer asked. He met Vega’s stare as the man blinked away the sauce in his eyes. “It’s like Christmas, isn’t it?”

 

* * *

 

Eight broken fingers, a fractured tibia, and multiple cuts later, and Lucifer still wasn’t satisfied with Vega’s punishment. The man hadn’t broken. He’d cried out when Maze hammered each finger, one at a time, and he’d blacked out for several seconds when Lucifer had kicked him in the shin, but he still wasn’t begging for his life.

Why wasn’t this making him feel any better? It should have satisfied him to see Chloe’s attacker bloodied and beaten.

 _Some humans are harder to crack than others_ , Maze had once told him. Lucifer had supposed it was similar to his ability to get people to share things with him. Some humans were complicated, most weren’t. Perhaps Vega was a complicated one.

After an hour of the same, silent contempt, Maze had dragged the human into a chair, positioned him in front of an upturned table, and began to use him as target practice. Not that she needed it. Lucifer knew that Maze could have hit Vega through the heart in one throw, but this was more about psychological torture than physical. Every time a knife embedded itself into the wooden table, getting closer to hitting him, the human struggled and panicked a little more. Until finally he shouted out,

“Wait! Alright--” Vega tried to sit up straighter, to meet Lucifer’s eyes. “I did it! I killed him.”

There was a moment of silence, as Maze scoffed and lifted another knife.

“Hold on,” Lucifer said at last, and held her hand to stop her. “What does he think this is about?”

“This--” The man coughed and slumped back down in his seat. “This isn’t about Martinez?”

“Who?” Maze frowned.

“No,” Lucifer snapped. “You’ll be punished for that, don’t worry, but this is about the Detective.”

“That w-woman in the alley?” Vega laughed. It was weak, a lot more like another cough than a real laugh, but it was enough to fill Lucifer with a burning rage. “That bitch was--” Lucifer hit him. Vega’s head cracked to the side and blood spurted from his mouth, but it wasn’t enough.

A red cloud swam around Lucifer’s vision, and before he could stop himself he dragged Vega back towards the vat. The man tried to twist out of his grasp, but the Devil held firm and pushed Vega’s head back into the congealed sauce.

“Lucifer...” Maze whispered. It took him a moment to realise why the demon was staring at him, in a mixture of shocked excitement. At first he thought it was surprise that he'd dragged Vega back to the vat, but then he felt the burning in his eyes and he knew why she was staring.

“They’re back?” Lucifer asked hopefully, just to be certain, and the demon smiled as she nodded. “How?”

“I don’t know,” Maze admitted, but her surprise quickly gave way to a wicked smile as she nodded down at the forgotten human. “But now we can really break him.”

“Maze,” Lucifer said, grinning at her. “I do love the way your mind works.” He pulled the drowning man back up and let him slip and stumble on his fractured leg. He hit the ground, hard, and Lucifer waited silently for the inevitable moment that Vega looked up.

When he finally did, and he saw the red eyes of the Devil staring down at him, the man gasped and choked on the salsa still in his mouth.

“Don’t be shy, Mazikeen,” Lucifer encouraged, and he didn’t need to turn to know that the demon had let her human face fade away. Vega’s scream was enough to tell him it had. The man nearly choked on the sauce all over again, and scrambled backwards on the slippery floor.

“Is that reaction for her or me?” Lucifer asked as he slowly stalked after Vega.

“Please,” Vega cried desperately. “I’ll do anything you want!”

“Anything?” Lucifer repeated, stepping closer.

“ _Anything_. I’ll do anything you want, just--! Just let me go, please?”

“Well, when you put it like that.” Lucifer knelt down slowly and grinned. “I want your soul.”

“Wh-- My what?” Vega laughed nervously.

“You heard him,” Maze said from somewhere to the side. “The Devil wants your soul.”

“It’s non-negotiable, I’m afraid.”

Vega looked between them, unblinking. He seemed to be wrestling between taking Lucifer seriously, or thinking that he must have been losing his mind.

“Okay,” he said eventually, and nodded frantically. “Sure, whatever you want.” Vega appeared to think that would appease him, he even smiled, but that smile fell when Lucifer and Maze began to laugh. The demon clapped the Devil on the shoulder as they turned to face each other, and the bewildered human could do nothing but stare up at them from the ground.

“That was too easy,” Maze said, in her element.

“I’d forgotten how easily they fall for that one,” Lucifer agreed. He looked back down at the broken Vega, and his smile fell. The man was trembling, terrified, and Lucifer supposed that was the best reaction he was going to get. Even if it still hadn’t sated his need to punish Chloe’s attacker.

“Let’s just finish him,” Maze insisted, when she saw how serious he’d become. “He deserves it.”

“We can’t. He still needs to be punished for his other crime,” Lucifer told her. Maze gave him a look. She didn’t believe that was the only thing keeping Vega alive, and she was right. Chloe, oddly, was why the killer still breathed. She wouldn’t forgive him, or Maze, if she knew they’d killed someone; no matter what their motives were. She needed her aggressor behind bars, and Lucifer and Maze would make that happen, now that they’d roughed him up a little.

“See to the security tapes, Maze,” Lucifer instructed. “We’re done here.”


	3. The Truth

_Lucifer. 16th January. Tuesday Afternoon._

A day after Chloe’s impromptu return to work, and Lucifer had brought his session with Linda forward a day early. After seeing how she flinched when Ella left the lab, he’d decided to stay by Chloe’s side for the rest of the morning. It was leaving her alone that had allowed the Detective to get hurt in the first place, but now that he could see the effects of that still plaguing her, Lucifer was determined not to make that mistake again.

“We might get a new case, Detective,” he’d told her, the first time Chloe asked him why he was following her around like a lost puppy. A very tall, lost puppy. “I’m just saving us time. It’s better that I stay here, by your side, in case something happens.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen, Lucifer,” Chloe promised, but he could see in her eyes that she didn’t really believe it herself. “I can call you if we get a new case. Which I doubt we will, considering no one here thinks I’m ready to be back.”

"All the more reason to stay with you," he tried to explain. "We'll carry on working here. What better way to show these doubters that you're more than ready?" Lucifer didn't truly feel that Chloe was ready to be back, either, but she would get there. In the meantime, he was willing to do anything if it meant not leaving her alone again.

"As much as I appreciate the pep talk," Chloe said, and turned on him suddenly. He realised then that it wasn't doubt at her own words in the Detective's eyes, it was doubt in him. She didn't trust him. "Whatever happened," she said measuredly, "And whatever you did, I just want to... move forward. I want to finish some paperwork, and focus on getting better. I can't do that with you hovering around me."

"Whatever I did?" Lucifer repeated. He could feel his smile falling. His cheeks ached from the effort of keeping it in place for so long.

Chloe took a moment to reply. She sat at her desk, stared blankly at the stacks of paper in front of her, and then took a deep breath. It was shaky, and Lucifer felt a pang in his chest when she refused to look at him.

"Just... Go back to Lux," the Detective insisted. "Or do whatever the hell you want, as usual, but do it away from me."

“Detective--”

“No, Lucifer. I have work to do.”

It hurt, but it was no less than what he deserved. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. That was when he’d decided to bring his session with Linda forward. Maybe Chloe could try to move forward, but Lucifer couldn’t.

“So anyway,” he told his therapist as he reclined back and crossed his legs. “After Maze was done with the rolling pin, I thought it was time to hit--”

“Okay!” Linda interrupted, holding up a hand to stop him right there. She looked a little queasy. “Okay. Do you remember when we talked about oversharing?”

“But I haven’t got to the best part yet,” Lucifer protested.

The doctor sighed and lowered her hand. He wanted to tell her more about what he’d done, because surely she’d understand and agree that it was the right thing to do, but instead Lucifer remained silent. He watched her curiously, waiting to see what his therapist had to say.

“Let’s try something else,” Linda said gently. “Instead of telling me _what_ you did, I want to talk about _why_ you did it. How did it make you feel?”

He didn’t answer. It wasn’t about how it made him feel, it was about what was right and just. Vega had been deserving of punishment. He was Chloe’s attacker. He was a murderer. Lucifer’s feelings on the matter were inconsequential.

“Lucifer,” Linda said, drawing his attention back to her. “Do you feel guilty?”

“Why would I feel guilty? That nasty little mouth-breather got what he deserved.”

“I’m not talking about what you did to Chloe’s attacker.” Lucifer fell silent again. He stared at Linda and she stared back, and he knew this was one of those moments when she was waiting for him to realise _something_.

“He’s the one who should be feeling guilty,” Lucifer insisted. “And I’m sure, now that he’s lying in that hospital bed, he deeply regrets what he did.”

“You’re avoiding my question,” she pointed out patiently. “You wanted to see me a day early for a reason. So tell me, how do you feel?”

Lucifer didn’t answer, hoping she’d ask something else, but Linda remained calmly quiet. She really wasn’t going to let the matter drop.

“Very well,” Lucifer sighed. “It’s hard to say, really. I suppose I’m… angry. Frustrated, maybe.”

“Okay.” She nodded encouragingly. “You’ve dealt with a lot of murderers. Some in _Hell_ , some since you started working with Chloe. Why did this one in particular make you angry?”

“They all make me angry,” Lucifer answered.

“But you don’t punish them all. You let the LAPD take care of them.”

“He needed a special sort of punishment.”

“For the murder?”

“For what he did to the Detective.”

“And anger is all you feel?”

“What else is there to feel?” Lucifer almost snapped, but a moment later he reclined back again and pushed forward a smile. Linda didn’t look convinced. Both of them knew what the truth really was.

“The Detective didn’t deserve what happened to her,” he went on, pausing when he felt a lump rise in his throat. “I simply… I should have been there for her.”

“Lucifer,” Linda soothed. Her voice was oddly relaxing, but Lucifer was making a point of looking anywhere but towards the doctor. He stared at the blinds as she spoke again, trying to get his attention. “We can’t deal with our emotions if we ignore them. Now, I can’t help you unless you’re honest with me, and with yourself. What do you feel when you think about what happened to Chloe?”

Silence stretched between them, but Lucifer already knew exactly what he felt.

“Guilt.”

 

* * *

 

_Chloe. 16th January. Tuesday Afternoon._

She’d tried to go into work again, but after Dan had noticed how jumpy she was, he’d insisted that she go back home. She needed the rest, that was the reason he’d given Chloe, but she knew that wasn’t it. It was the obvious trauma she was going through, and she knew that. She knew the symptoms, having seen them enough in people who’d been assaulted, Chloe just had a hard time accepting that she was one of them. She hadn’t been assaulted, it was just part of her job. She wasn’t a victim. She _would_ get better.

It was just taking more time than she'd have liked.

There'd been a particular sound right before Vega had first hit her, like a thump. Chloe thought it sounded like a door nearby slamming shut. So now she tensed up every time a door closed a little too loudly, preparing herself for another hit. Her heart would beat faster and her breathing would catch. She didn't think anyone would notice, but Lucifer had the day before, and now Dan had. Lucifer had reacted by staying firmly by her side for the rest of the morning. Dan's reaction was to send her home where it was quiet.

Being back in her apartment was almost worse than being at the precinct. Where work had been loud and full of people, home was quiet and empty. Trixie was at school, but she’d been spending her days with Dan until Chloe was feeling better. She’d assured Dan that she’d feel better if her daughter was with her, but even she knew that wasn’t strictly true. Trixie would have too many questions, and Chloe herself wasn’t ready to face the answers yet.

She couldn’t even call or text Lucifer, not after what she’d said to him the day before. She’d lost her temper and snapped. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy working with him, or like his company, but too much had happened around him and he hadn’t trusted her with the truth. Trust should work both ways, she thought. How could she trust him when he kept secrets? Violent ones, if her suspicions were correct.

“You’re back early,” Maze said, and Chloe flinched. She turned as her roommate came down the stairs, carrying a black duffle bag. “Thought you had work you wanted to do?”

“I did,” Chloe answered, trying to calm her breathing. “I do,” she corrected. “But no one thinks I’m ready. They won’t even let me _ask_ about… the guy that did it.”

“Isn’t he still in hospital?” Maze asked, but she sounded as if she already knew the answer.

“Yeah,” she replied carefully, wondering just how much Maze really knew. “He is. I just wanna know who put him there.”

“Why?” Her roommate frowned as she dumped her bag on the kitchen counter. It gave a metallic scraping sound; like it was full of knives. “After what he did to you, guy deserved what he got.”

“You mean he was _rightfully punished_?” Chloe asked, mimicking Lucifer’s English accent. Maze smirked.

“Something like that.”

“That’s the problem,” she tried to explain, and took a seat on one of the barstools. Maze may not have been the best person to seek advice from, but Chloe needed someone to talk to; someone who really knew Lucifer. Linda wasn’t an option, not when she was his actual therapist. “Vega was attacked just hours after he… After what happened to me.”

Maze stared at her, waiting for her to carry on, but her expression was too blank. It was perfectly emotionless, and Chloe knew what that meant. She knew something.

“It’s like he was attacked _because_ of what happened to me.”

Again, Maze was silent. She looked her up and down slowly, and Chloe tried not to shift under Maze’s appreciative gaze. Whatever she was looking for, her roommate nodded a second later and pursed her lips.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay?” Chloe frowned.

“Yeah, _okay_. You wanna know the truth, right?” It was Chloe’s turn to stare, because she couldn’t quite believe that Maze was offering the truth. Surely, if Lucifer wanted to keep whatever happened a secret, Maze would honour his wishes.

“Right,” she said quietly. “I just wasn’t expecting you to tell me.”

“I told him he should just tell you,” Maze shrugged, and opened a side-pocket on her duffle bag. “Lucifer says you should have a choice.” She rummaged around inside, and Chloe dreaded to think what was making the heavy, clunking sound, before her friend pulled out a small, plastic box. A memory card holder, Chloe realised.

“What’s this?” She asked, taking it from Maze.

“He asked me to deal with the security footage,” she explained, and Chloe held her breath when she realised what she was holding. “I’m giving you that choice. Think about whether or not you _really_ wanna know. If you do,” Maze collected up her duffle bag, ready to leave, “Just remember he did it for you. We _both_ did.”

Long after Maze had left, with her duffle bag of ominous sounds, Chloe was still sat at the barstool. She’d pulled out a bottle of wine and drained a glass of it quickly. It still sat, empty, on the kitchen counter as she stared at the memory card in her hand. She hadn’t let it out of her sight since Maze had given it to her. It almost felt as if the tiny thing was taunting her; promising her all of this truth, and in exchange, all Chloe had to do was risk what she thought of her partner.

 _Lucifer did it - whatever it was - for me,_ she tried to remind herself. _And Maze did, too._ Chloe amended. Did she really need to see exactly what her roommate and partner had done to her attacker? She thought she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's the shortest of the four, but it hopefully helps to tie the first two chapters together.  
> Thank you to everyone who's commented and left kudos so far! It's really appreciated.


	4. Two Sides to Every Story

_Lucifer. 19th January. Friday Night._

Lux was packed, but there were only two people who were able to hold Lucifer’s attention. Maze and Linda sat opposite him, in the booth that the three of them shared, drinking and chatting away. Lucifer and Maze were already on their fifth - sixth? - round of drinks, and Linda was doing her best to keep up.

It didn’t help him to shake the feeling that someone was missing, but it was nice to be spending time with his friends since that _someone_ had been avoiding him since Monday. Every call to the Detective had gone to voicemail, and every text had been left unread. He tried not to think about what that meant. It had been his choice, after talking with Maze, to give Chloe the memory card, and he’d been so sure that he was ready for her to see the truth. Now he knew he’d been lying to himself; something Linda had assured him was normal.

“We should try something else,” Maze interrupted his thoughts with a grin. She didn’t need to say anything else for Lucifer to know that the demon recognised his need for a distraction. She probably needed the distraction herself. It wasn’t just Lucifer that Chloe had been avoiding, and neither of them had been able to see Trixie. Maze had ended up staying with him in the penthouse for the last couple of nights.

“A Four Horsemen?” Lucifer suggested, purely because he liked the cocktail’s name, and it made Maze smile wider.

“Maybe. Or a Three Wise Men?” She countered.

“Not for me,” Linda said, as she wobbled and shook her head. “I need to...” She pressed her hands flat against the table to steady herself. “To slow down.”

“Already?” Lucifer asked, disappointed. “But the night’s still young.”

The doctor levelled him with a look. It was the sort of look she’d give him during their sessions, when he was purposely pretending not to understand what she meant, but it wasn’t as effective when she was wavering from side-to-side.

“Lucifer,” Linda warned with the beginnings of a slur.

“Doctor?”

“Drinking to distract is never a good idea,” she informed him, while Maze finished her own drink.

“So, what you’re saying is,” Lucifer began to surmise, “I should drink for pleasure?”

“No, that’s _not_ \--”

“Well, I can certainly try,” he interrupted. Drinking to distract wasn’t working, anyway. The alcohol had no affect on him or Maze, and it did nothing to stop him from worrying about Chloe. Until she reached out to him, Lucifer had no way of knowing if she was avoiding him because of what had happened to her, or because she knew the truth.

Leaving Maze and Linda at their table, Lucifer got up and weaved his way to the bar. People easily moved out of his way, as they gave him a bright smile or an appreciative look, but Patrick was the only one that spoke to him.

Lucifer ordered the same cocktails they’d been drinking all evening, and the bartender frowned.

“You sure you want _three_ drinks?” He asked, looking over Lucifer’s shoulder.

“Oh, not you as well. I’ve already had the--” Lucifer stopped when he turned and saw who was standing beside Maze.

Forgetting his order, and leaving Patrick without another word, he hurried back through the crowd and returned to his table.

“Detective,” Lucifer greeted, trying his best to pretend he hadn’t just rushed over. He slipped back into the booth and gave Chloe an easy smile. “Are you...” _Angry_? _Scared_? _Hurt_? “Are you well?”

She glanced between the three of them, and even if it was only a brief moment of hesitation, Lucifer knew what that look meant. She was scared, and she looked tired. Chloe tried to appear brave, she stood up straight and kept her chin up, but her eyes gave her away.

“Can we talk?” She asked finally.

“Of course,” Lucifer agreed, and pat the empty seat beside himself. “I’m all yours.”

“ _In private,_ ” Chloe added, and the look in her eyes changed from nervous to imploring. “I want to--” Whatever the Detective had been about to say, she was cut off by a man bumping into her. Lucifer didn’t pay him much attention - he was either drunk or trying to dance - until he saw Chloe’s hands begin to shake. She looked terrified; lost in the flash of a memory that Lucifer hadn’t been able to prevent.

Without thinking, he stood and made to grab the man that had hurt her, but Chloe grabbed him first. She squeezed Lucifer’s wrist and shook her head.

“Detective,” he began to object, but then he saw Maze watching the two of them closely. She looked ready to pounce into action, and she probably would have done if Chloe hadn’t been quick enough to stop Lucifer.

“Please,” Chloe whispered, drawing his attention back to her.

 _This is it_ , he thought. She was there to tell him she no longer wanted to work with him. She’d seen the truth and it had scared her so badly that she wanted nothing more to do with him.

Wordlessly, Lucifer led Chloe to the elevator.

 

* * *

 

Chloe. _19th January. Friday Night._

The shaking didn’t stop until Chloe was up in Lucifer’s penthouse. She sat on his sofa, with the doors to the balcony wide open. They let in a cooling, night breeze that sent a different kind of shiver through her body.

Taking a deep breath, Chloe turned to the man sitting beside her.

“Does this keep happening?” He asked softly. She was about to answer him when a noise at the bar interrupted her. Maze was there a second later, and she quietly set two glasses of whiskey down on the coffee table.

“Thank you, Maze,” Lucifer said, tipping his drink towards their friend.

“Let me know if you need anything,” she offered, and then she was gone as quickly as she’d appeared at Lucifer’s side.

“No,” Chloe answered after a moment of quiet. She cleared her throat. “Kind of. I’ve had... flashes of memory here and there. Something usually triggers it first, but...” She stopped, remembering who she was speaking to. Lucifer claimed she wasn’t under the influence of whatever Devil mojo he used on their suspects, but she had no other explanation for why she found it so easy to share things with him. Chloe had to remind herself why she was there.

_He’s the Devil._

“So, it keeps happening,” Lucifer said, and her silence was enough to tell him that he was right.

His mood shifted suddenly. In an instant, Lucifer’s calmness melted away into something far more desperate. He held her hands and rubbed the backs of them with his thumbs. She would have smiled at the comforting gesture, if not for the look on Lucifer’s face. His eyes twinkled with sadness, as if he was about to break some terrible news to her.

Chloe held her breath and waited.

"You shouldn't ever have been forced to relive what happened," Lucifer said, with such an assuredness and intensity that Chloe was lost for words. "That truly is Hell."

She believed him, and of all the things she’s learnt in the past week, that scared her the most. Not Lucifer, or the flashbacks, or anything her partner had done in the name of justice. Hell was real, and of course he knew what that was like.

“It’ll pass,” Chloe told him quietly, but he didn’t seem comforted by those words. “I bet you’re in the camp that thinks I came back to work too soon,” she added, suddenly stalling.

“I think,” Lucifer said in a hushed voice, “You used work as a distraction. I can’t fault you for wanting to distract yourself, Detective. We all do it.”

“That’s very insightful of you,” she replied with a small smile, which Lucifer brightly returned.

“I have a very insightful doctor,” he told her. “You should talk to her.” Chloe couldn’t argue with that. She nodded, thinking about what Maze and Linda must have thought after seeing her panic. She appreciated Maze’s offer to tell her if she needed anything, but for just that moment, Chloe was glad her friends weren’t crowding around her. She needed to confront Lucifer by herself.

“And you should talk to Maze,” Lucifer added gently, as if he’d read her thoughts. Could he really do that? “She misses the child.”

“She’s been with Dan,” Chloe tried to reason, but she could tell that Lucifer believed that excuse as much as she herself did.

Reaching for her untouched glass, Chloe took a sip of the drink Maze had poured, and then another. It did nothing to dampen the guilt she felt for having avoided both Maze and Lucifer. It was true that Trixie had been staying with her dad, but Chloe could have brought her home sooner. She’d just been scared. Too much had happened in too short a time.

“Come on,” she heard Lucifer say, and he tugged on her hand as he stood. “You need another distraction.”

Chloe followed him silently as he led her out onto the balcony. The cooler air was refreshing, and she suddenly felt a lot safer. Beside her, Lucifer nonchalantly leaned against the glass railing and looked up to the sky. She didn’t know how he could act like nothing had happened. Maybe he was just better at hiding it than she was.

“I come out here a lot,” he told her, and cast Chloe a conspiratorial look, like he was a child sharing a big secret. “It’s the perfect place to think.”

She stared at him, and his jovial smile faded slightly when she didn’t return it.

 _This is it_ , she decided. This was the moment she’d come here for. She needed to talk to him about her attacker, and everything else.

“It really was you,” Chloe whispered as steadily as her rising nerves would allow.

“He deserved it,” Lucifer said to her surprise. He didn’t deny it, and he definitely wasn’t surprised that she’d brought it up. “He had to be punished for what he did to you, Detective.”

“You don’t get to decide that, Lucifer,” she insisted, but she could tell that the Devil didn’t agree.

“I know what people deserve,” he assured her. “No one knows punishment better than me. Except Maze.”

Chloe had no idea how he could confess to torturing a man - to punishing anyone - with such calmness and pride. He was _proud_ of what he’d done. There was no arrogance to his claims that he and Maze were the best at punishing. It was stated as a simple fact; one that Chloe knew she couldn’t dissuade him from acting on.

She thought back to the grainy footage from inside Martinez’s restaurant. There had been parts of the torture that she’d had to skip, but she’d been determined to watch as much of it as she could, until the very end. Then she’d seen it. She saw the moment Lucifer’s eyes burned red, and his and Maze’s human faces slipped away. She saw them turn her attacker mad. Just thinking about it made her heart pound faster.

“So you lied in Dan’s report?” She asked quietly, and Lucifer looked stung.

“I did no such thing. I _did_ discover your assailant, a few minutes after I had Maze drop him off.” Chloe felt her mouth drop open, but Lucifer didn’t seem to notice. “Then I had a few officers look the other way. Charlotte and the Lieutenant were more than willing to accept the half-truth, and helped cover up the rest.”

“ _Pierce_ helped you?” Chloe questioned, unable to hide the disbelief from her voice. Charlotte helping Lucifer made sense, she had spent years defending criminals, and maybe Chloe herself had looked the other way sometimes, but _Marcus_? “Why?”

“We made a deal,” Lucifer answered smoothly.

Chloe stared at him. She didn’t know what Marcus could want so badly that he’d make a deal with her partner, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. It felt like confronting Lucifer was going to leave her with more questions than answers.

She shivered, and she was sure it wasn’t because of the cool night air, but it wasn’t out of fear, either.

She wondered if she should be scared of a man - devil? - capable of such violence, and of striking deals with high ranking officers. The obvious answer was _yes_ , she should have been, but Chloe couldn’t ever imagine being scared of him. She looked across at Lucifer, with his face lit in a soft glow from the night sky. He seemed lost in thought now, as he watched the faint twinkle of the stars overhead.

From the ground, the stars were drowned out by the brightness of the city, but being a little higher up offered a new perspective. There _were_ stars, and the brightest were visible from Lucifer’s penthouse.

“Do you like the stars?” She asked, still watching him. He didn’t seem to realise it, so he made no attempt to hide the rueful smile that appeared on his face.

“I suppose I still do, yes,” Lucifer answered.

“Is that why you chose the name?”

“What?” That made him look down at her, and she caught the brief flicker of something in his eyes before it disappeared behind an unassuming smile.

“Morningstar,” Chloe clarified. “Of all the devil-related names, you went with that.”

“I didn’t choose it,” he corrected, frowning slightly. It wasn’t an angry frown, Chloe thought. Lucifer seemed more confused that she didn’t understand his name. “It’s… more of a title, really. I’m _the_ Morningstar.”

She stared at him for a moment, and Lucifer stared back expectantly. Was there any easy way of telling him that she knew the truth? At least his comment made her think of something else; another new perspective that she could only see now that she was stood alone with Lucifer.

“It’s kinda funny,” she said with a smile, and he looked as if he was about to protest before she went on. “The Devil’s meant to be this big, dark… _being_ , but his name means light.”

“Yes, it’s almost as if I’ve been the victim of terrible slander,” Lucifer drawled. “Hilarious, Detective.”

“Right,” Chloe nodded, trying to make him understand what she meant. “There’s two sides to every story,” she said carefully, and watched as Lucifer’s annoyance faded away. He looked at her almost hopefully, waiting for her to carry on. “Just like there’s two sides to our case, right? What you and Maze did…” How did she put this?

Chloe took a deep breath and held Lucifer’s gaze.

“I know you did it because you thought it was the right thing to do--”

“It was.”

“--For me.”

Chloe didn’t mind Lucifer’s interruption, for once. It told her how deeply he felt that Maze and him had done the right thing. He didn’t regret it, and she knew Maze didn’t, either.

“I know you watched the footage,” Lucifer pointed out, and Chloe sighed. Of course he knew. She’d been stalling telling him that she’d given in and watched it, but her probing questions must have given her away.

“I wasn’t going to watch it, but I just...” she began to confess and trailed off.

“You were tempted,” he supplied.

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed with a huff of a laugh. “I just had to know what really happened.”

Lucifer nodded. “How much did you see?”

There was a hidden question in there, and a slight hesitation that gave away what he really meant; _Did you see my face?_

“I had to skip a lot of it, but I saw--” She pointed to her own face and Lucifer visibly tensed. He stood up straighter and nodded again. It was as if he was bracing himself for something.

“I see,” he said quietly. “Then I think I can guess why you’re here, Detective. Just say the word.”

It took Chloe a second to realise what Lucifer must have been preparing himself for.

_He thinks I’m going to reject him._

“I’m not leaving you,” Chloe found herself saying. Trust worked both ways. Lucifer had only ever shown that he trusted her, and wanted to protect her. Maybe she should do the same for him now and trust him. “I was scared at first,” she admitted, knowing that they could only move forward with the truth. “I mean, who wouldn’t be? But you and Maze trusted me with the truth.”

Reaching for the memory card box in her back pocket, Chloe studied Lucifer’s face closely as she handed it to him. His shoulders slumped when he realised what it was, and he hesitantly took it from her.

“It’s kind of why I’ve been, you know--“ _Avoiding you_. “--I just needed some time,” Chloe tried to explain, and Lucifer watched her curiously. “It’s a lot to take in, and I just… I thought space would help make it easier.” He smiled faintly, showing her he understood, and Chloe took it as a cue to carry on. “But I don’t want space anymore.”

It was difficult to find the right words for how she felt. Just imagining Lucifer and Maze _torturing_ Vega had been troubling by itself, but then she’d seen the real thing play out. When his eyes first started to glow, Chloe had tried to explain it away as an error on the tape. It was that, or the reflection of the kitchen lights, but Vega’s reaction had been undeniably real. Lucifer’s eyes were _real_. That face was _real_. It wasn’t a joke or a delusion. He’d been telling her the truth. She still remembered the sickly feeling that overcame her, as her stomach dropped and everything Lucifer had ever done or said suddenly made sense.

“You aren’t scared anymore?” He asked with all the confidence he usually presented to the world, but Chloe saw straight through it. There was hope in his eyes as he met hers.

“No,” Chloe smiled. “You’re a lot of things. You’re reckless, you can be infuriating sometimes, or impossible to talk to--”

“Flatterer,” Lucifer interrupted, and made her grin at the normalcy they’d slipped back into.

“But you, Lucifer Morningstar,” she stopped her teasing and reached for his hand, “Are not scary. I realised that,” Chloe paused for a moment, picking her words carefully, “I need to trust you. Maze told me you did it for me, and that’s not to say I approve of what you did.”

“Of course.”

“But you did what you thought was best, and we all want to protect those we care about. Right?”

“Well said, Detective,” Lucifer agreed, his smile slowly growing. She felt her own widen, and relief fluttered in her chest. _He agreed._ He hadn’t objected to the fact that he cared about her.

“The only thing I was really scared of was,” Chloe had to stop, to push herself to say the man’s name, “Was Vega. Not you. Whenever I thought about what happened, it felt like… I was falling,” Lucifer’s eyes flashed with something she didn’t recognise, but he waited quietly for her to go on. “I had _no_ control over what happened to me, where I’d fall, or how much it’d hurt.”

“Oh, we can’t have that,” the Devil said in a serious whisper, and gently brushed his hand against her cheek. “I’d catch you, Detective.”

“You did. It wasn’t your fault, what happened.” Something shifted in Lucifer. His smile wavered and he dropped his hand.

_Oh no._

“It wasn’t,” she repeated. “Did you think it was?”

He didn’t answer her at first. Lucifer just looked down at his hand in hers, and then turned his head towards the city below.

“Lucifer,” she urged gently.

“I should have been there with you,” he said, like it was a confession that had been plaguing his conscious all week. _Because it had_ , a little voice told Chloe. “I could have stopped him.”

“You can’t rewrite what happened, Lucifer.” She tried to keep her voice soft, but it broke when she said his name. Had he really been torturing himself all week thinking it was _his_ fault? “You’re with me now,” Chloe tried again. “That’s all I want. Not revenge, or punishment, or you feeling guilty. I just want my partner back.”

Lucifer looked back at her, with a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

“I could give you all three,” he tempted, making her laugh despite the reality of what Lucifer was offering her.

“Just one will do,” Chloe assured him.

“Well,” Lucifer said, “There is another thing I could do.” The smirk on his face, and the arch of his eyebrow, weren’t enough to tell her whether he was joking or not. But he had to be. There was no way Lucifer would have missed that innuendo.

“No, Lucifer,” she told him firmly, biting back her own smile. “We are not going to--”

“Have a drink?”

 _Wait-- “_ What? _”_

“We should have a drink,” Lucifer suggested, with an infuriating grin on his face because he knew _exactly_ where he’d just led her mind. Chloe tried to scowl at him, but it was no use. He knew she didn’t mean it.

“I don’t know,” she hesitated, but he’d already slipped his hand from hers. “I don’t think I’m ready to head back down yet.”

Lucifer stopped halfway to the elevator and turned to face her. His eyes, for just a second, looked sympathetic. Then it was gone again and replaced with his usual spark as he smiled at her.

“What’s wrong with the bar up here?” He teased. Chloe felt some of her unease slip away again, and she nodded to accept his offer. It made Lucifer’s smile even brighter.

“I’ll get Maze and the doctor,” he told her, and playfully wiggled his eyebrows. “We can have our own private party.”

Being with her friends was exactly what she needed, but Chloe wasn’t ready to give up her time alone with Lucifer just yet. Before he could back into the elevator, she grabbed his hand and stopped him. There was one last thing she had to say.

“Thank you, Lucifer.” She paused, watching the flash of surprise and uncertainty cross his face. “I feel safe here. With you.”

“Your partner’s the Devil,” Lucifer reminded, recovering quickly from his shock at her admission. He gave her hand a squeeze and stepped back into the elevator, grinning brightly at her. Chloe smiled back. “Of course you’re safe, Detective.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you to every for the kudos and comments on this fic! I always really value the feedback.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve wanted to write Lucifer’s reaction to something like this for a while now. The subject matter's a little personal to me, so I hope I can do it justice. That’s part of why Chloe’s actual attack has been left quite vague; I just couldn’t bring myself to write it in the end. I can, however, write the guy that did it getting punished ;)  
> (@[mareyshelley](http://mareyshelley.tumblr.com) on tumblr)


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